Levies on driving work, whether people like them or not.

Zweisystem’s posted a write-up of a report from some British MPs. The upshot seems to be that that people don’t like various levies on driving, from vehicle taxes to congestion pricing. No, I don’t suppose they do. Not too many of us actually enjoy paying taxes.

But whether people like these policies and whether they produce the right policy outcomes are two different questions. So what outcomes do these policies produce? Take congestion pricing, for example. According to Ken Livingston, the former mayor of London, London’s congestion pricing scheme:

Shifted 4% of London drivers out of their cars and onto public transit.

Reduced by 70,000 per day the number of vehicles entering the congestion-priced zone.

Cut the amount of traffic entering central London each day by 20%.

And contributed to a 72% increase in the number of cyclists in London since 2000.

Also, you know, it generated money that could get kicked back into making London’s public transit even better. So there’s at least some evidence to suggest that congestion pricing works, whether people like it or not.